Objective To study the epidemiological features of cleft palate (CP) in Chinese perinatals.Methods Data from 1996 to 2000 were collected through Chinese Birth Defects Monitoring Network a hospital based congenital malformation registry system. During that period all live or still birthswith 28 weeks of gestation ormore were assessed within 7 days after delivery.Re- sults 499 perinatalswith CPwere identified among 2 218 616 births, then the overall prevalence rates of CPwere 2·25/10 000, rates in isolated and syndromic CPwere 1·75/10 000, 0·50/10 000 respectively. The rates in urban and rural area, in male and female births were 2·27/10 000 and 2·19/10 000, 1·93/10 000 and 2·57/10 000 respectively. The highest but nonsignificant rate (2·84/10 000) was found in maternal age group of more than 35 years. An increased trend was found both in overall CP and syn- dromic CP during that period. Geographic variation was found among provinces. The perinatal mortality rate of CP was 14·9%, and the rate of isolated forms was 7·3%, while the rate of syndromic CP was as high as 41·4%.Conclusion The increasing prevalence rate of syndromic CP can account forthe seculartrend of overall CP. Female predominance was only observed in isolat- ed forms of CP among Chinese perinatals. Geographic variation was identified too. Due to poor birth quality, perinatals suffering from syndromic CP had poor prognosis.
